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A war season is currently five days long. Unlike leagues, war seasons start at the same time for all players globally. All alliances with at least eight members at the beginning of a season join automatically. Every alliance is then grouped with five other alliances based on their number of fiefdoms.

During a war season, players see an animation at the top of their screen when focusing on the upper part of their castle, displaying the remaining time. They can access the war map by clicking on it or by going through the alliance menu.

The war map provides an overview of the current state of the war season. It shows 18 hexagons, called fiefdoms. At the beginning of a season, each alliance starts with three fiefdoms. From there, neighboring fiefdoms can be attacked. Each alliance can only attack one other fiefdom at a time, but may be attacked by several other alliances at the same time.

Only alliance leaders and generals can declare an alliance war. For other members, the war map is merely an overview. Towards the end of a season (with 23h and 30min left), starting a new war is no longer possible.

At the end of a season, winners are chosen based on the number of fiefdoms on the war map. If two alliances have the same number of fiefdoms, their total numbers of skulls are used as a tie-breaker.

It is possible for an alliance to be eliminated from a war season sooner if it loses all of its fiefdoms and isn't currently attacking another alliance. Players from an eliminated alliance can still observe developments on the war map, but cannot otherwise participate.

The top 3 alliances of a war season are rewarded some special elite boosts that can only be unlocked this way. The boosts will initially be active for ten days but can be prolonged using alliance gold (or by winning more alliance wars). The following boosts are awarded:

- Dragofroster, Gargoyle Nest and Surprise Mummy

- Dracomancer, Frenzy Frost Blaster and Doom Gate

Fiefdoms won or lost during a war season are also added or subtracted from the alliance's total fiefdoms. With more fiefdoms an alliance gains a tax bonus that is added to each donation made by a member. The number of fiefdoms also determines the compilation of alliances for the next war season.

An actual alliance war is what happens when one alliance attacks another alliance's fiefdom. Both alliances can then fight each other for 23h and 30min. At the end of the war, the winning alliance takes control of the fiefdom.

The winner of an alliance war is determined by the number of skulls both alliances managed to gain from it. The alliance attacking a fiefdom must have higher skulls than the defending alliance. Skulls can be earned by attacking the other alliance's players on the disputed fiefdom. Unlike regular attacks, alliance war attacks can even take place when a player is online. The gold stolen in such an attack isn't taken from the defender's Treasure Chamber but generated by the system.

Skulls are used to determine the winner of an alliance war. They are counted separately for each war, even if two alliances fight each other on different fronts. The total number of skulls earned during a war season is also counted and used as a tie-breaker. It can be seen by accessing the standings on the war map.

During a war, an alliance's number of skulls is simply the total of its members' skulls. Members earn skulls by attacking opposing players. The determination of a player's total skulls works like this:

The numbers in this screenshot provided by flaregames don't add up

Each opponent provides a certain number of skulls.

Bonus from skull items is added to this number.

Only the top 3 attacks with the most skulls are counted in full.

For each battle, a percentage of skulls is added to the total.

If the Chamber of Fortune is reached in a war battle, the first chest provides additional skulls.

For the skulls a player gains in an entire war season, they get Magic Chests as extra rewards. The number of skulls required for a certain chest may be changed by season conditions.

The following provides a more detailed explanation of how skulls are counted.

From each attack, a percentage of bonus skulls is added to a player's total. This goes for both the top three attacks and all other attacks.

Bonus skulls per attack = Skulls won x alliance skull bonus, rounded to the next integer

The alliance skull bonus is usually at 2% in the beginning of a war season, unless changed by special season conditions. During a war season, alliance skull bonus can be increased with skulls from the skull bonus pool ("loser bonus").

After each attack, if a player reaches the Chamber of Fortune, additional skulls can be found. These skulls are always the first treasure a player finds there. There is, however, no guarantee that the first chest opened is not a skull (=blank). This means that, in order to get skulls from the Chamber of Fortune, gems are sometimes needed to try out additional chests.

The amount of skulls is based on the opponent's rank within their alliance, according to their trophies:

Skulls from Chamber of Fortune = 101 - opponent's ranking within their alliance

In other words: For the highest ranking player 100 skulls can be found in the Chamber of Fortune, for the second highest one there are 99 and so on, until player #60 only provides 41 skulls.

Since rankings change during (and as a result of) wars, these numbers usually fluctuate a little.

Skulls from the Chamber of Fortune are always counted in full among a player's bonus skulls, under a headline like "+2% bonus". This is misleading, as these skulls have nothing to do with the alliance's bonus percentage.

When skulls are calculated, there are several steps where rounding is involved. Since numbers are always rounded to the nearest integer, this may work for or against a player. This is especially important with regards to alliance bonus skulls where numbers are small.

For example, an attack on a level 89 player provides 973 skulls. The 2% bonus equals 19.46 skulls, which is rounded down to 19 skulls. A level 90 player would provide 980 skulls, with a bonus of 19.60 rounded to 20 skulls. After this it makes no more difference since even the highest possible number of 1,015 skulls leads to 20 skulls.

The effects of rounding can offset base designs where towers next to the castle gate make it hard to get 100% victories. For example, a 97% victory on a 1,015 skulls base still results in 20 bonus skulls.

With skull bonus items and alliance skull bonus, the effects of rounding are even bigger. For example, a 1,015 skulls base needs to be raided with a 1.0% skull bonus item in order to get 21 bonus skulls. After that, a 6% bonus is needed for 22 bonus skulls.

With most weight on the top three attacks, it's most important to get these in with 100%. Items for bonus skulls have the biggest effect here as well.

Beyond the top three attacks, it makes little or no difference whether an attack is 100% successful or not, as long as the castle gate falls and the Chamber of Fortune is reached. Even the lowest skull reward of 41 for the lowest ranking player is much higher than the maximum of 20 skulls from the 2% alliance bonus.

Items with skull bonus usually lose most of their importance once the top three attacks are done since they do little with regards to alliance bonus skulls. Since it's much more important to reach the Chamber of Fortune, it can be more useful to wear items that actually help in an attack.

Alliances will share an additional Skull Bonus. Skulls gained in unsuccessful wars and the difference in fiefdoms determine who gets biggest share.

If your Alliance fights hard in a war, but in the end the other Alliance wins, your Alliance still has reached something meaningful, because in the upcoming wars of that season your Alliance will have an increased Skull-Bonus.

Each war that ends within a season increases the new Skull-Bonus-Pool by 1%. Each time a war is started, each Alliance gets a certain share of that Skull-Bonus-Pool. The more skulls an Alliance has earned in wars they ended up losing, the bigger the share they will get from the Skull-Bonus-Pool.

Example: Alliance A & Alliance B have both lost their initial wars in the season. Alliance A has scored 25.000 skulls and Alliance B has scored 75.000 skulls. The Skull-Bonus-Pool is 2% because 2 wars were finished. Alliance A and Alliance B both start new wars. Alliance A now gets 25% of the Skull-Bonus-Pool and Alliance B gets the 75% of the Skull-Bonus-Pool. In total Alliance A has a Skull Bonus of 2,5% (2% normal bonus + 0,5% from the Skull-Bonus-Pool) and Alliance B has a Skull Bonus of 3,5% (2% normal bonus + 1,5% from the Skull-Bonus-Pool).

The Skull Bonus for Alliances that have an equal or higher amount of fiefdoms will be multiplied with a multiplier of 0.3. (Or in other words, in this case the Skull-Bonus will be reduced by 70%).

10 or more Fiefdoms Lower:

The Skull Bonus will be multiplied with 1.0 if the losing Alliance has a fiefdom count that is more than 10 fiefdoms lower than the fiefdom count of the winning Alliance. (Or in other words, in this case the Skull-Bonus will not be decreased or increased at all).

20 or more Fiefdoms Lower:

The Skull Bonus will be multiplied by 1.25 if the losing Alliance has a fiefdom count that is more than 20 fiefdoms lower than the fiefdom count of the winning Alliance. (Or in other words, in this case the Skull-Bonus will be increased by 25%).

30 or more Fiefdoms Lower:

The Skull Bonus will be multiplied by 1.5 if the losing Alliance has a fiefdom count that is more than 30 fiefdoms lower than the fiefdom count of the winning Alliance. (Or in other words, in this case the Skull-Bonus will be increased by 50%).

Scaling:

In between these values the multiplier will be scaled. For example, if the losing Alliance has a fiefdom amount of 15 fiefdoms lower than the winning Alliance, then the multiplier will be 1.125